


safer by your side

by ThunderstormsandMemories



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Post-Canon, lawyer x journalist power couple here to kick ur ass for justice, no beta we die like god
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:41:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24711760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThunderstormsandMemories/pseuds/ThunderstormsandMemories
Summary: Ohya's reporting makes her some enemies, Sae wants to protect her
Relationships: Niijima Sae/Ohya Ichiko
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	safer by your side

**Author's Note:**

> written for the prompt "I'll be here to protect you" (inspired by my roommate and I coming up with ships for Sae, they said that Sae/Ohya was a good option, we were sad to find out how much of a rarepair it was, they sent me this prompt, and I wrote all of this in one day)
> 
> warnings for references to alcoholism

“I got another death threat today,” Ohya said, casually, like she was remarking on the weather, not looking up from her battered notebook. She was perched on the edge of the sofa, swirling the ice in her nearly-empty glass, the streetlights outside casting her in a dark golden glow. Around her was an explosion of papers: notes, news clippings, photographs, print-outs of emails and blog posts and police reports. Sae still didn’t understand how she kept everything organized, since there was no pattern apparent to Sae, but she was continually in awe of her girlfriend’s intuitive ability to see connections between pieces of evidence, to sense when there was more to a story and chase down evidence with single-minded determination until she had enough to stand up to even the most skeptical scrutiny. She hadn’t always thought so, but then again, that hadn’t always been true, and Sae—as someone else who had once set aside idealism for cheap corrupt ambition and found her way again eventually—admired Ohya even more for it.

She set down the deposition transcript she’d been reading and closed the binder sharply. Her own case could wait. “Are you okay?”

Ohya shrugged. “Hardly the first I’ve gotten in my career, let alone this story.” She took a sip from her drink and grimaced when she found it was mostly ice, then said, “I’m more worried no one will print it, but I guess we can burn those bridges when we get there.”

Sae crossed the room and carefully relocated a few of Ohya’s stacks of papers so that she could sit beside her and put an arm around her shoulder. “You’re being careful, right?”

“You know me, darling,” Ohya said.

“Yes, that’s why I’m concerned,” said Sae dryly, and Ohya laughed, throwing her head back, and shifted closer to Sae, linking their ankles together. “I trust you, I know you can handle this, but I still worry.”

“I know,” Ohya said, “and I love that about you.” She ruffled Sae’s hair fondly and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “I _have_ gone after harder stories than this, though, and more dangerous people. One corrupt bureaucrat isn’t gonna faze me.”

“One corrupt bureaucrat who sends death threats, apparently,” Sae pointed out. Not that she had much room to talk, considering how many threats she received, how many bribes she turned down, how many nasty rumors she heard about herself, because of the cases she took. At least now she knew it was because she was doing the right thing, helping people with no other options, people that those in charge of the cruel, unjust system didn’t want her to help. “Still, if you want my help, I’ll be here to protect you.”

“Aw, thanks, babe,” Ohya said. “Beautiful lawyers are definitely the thing hired toughs are most afraid of.”

“Hey, I do kickboxing,” Sae said, vaguely offended at the idea that she couldn’t defend her girlfriend if it came down to it. Defending people was what she did, though usually it was with her words rather than her fists. Though it wasn’t like she’d never considered a more vigilante style of justice, in her most uncertain moments, or whenever job hunting had seemed especially hopeless. But she couldn’t very well tell Akira and her sister to stop what they were doing if she was just going to turn around and do the exact same thing herself. “They _should_ be afraid of me.”

“Yes, you’re very intimidating and your muscles are very big,” Ohya said, rubbing Sae’s bicep gently through her blouse, and Sae shivered.

“Do you want me to teach you any self-defense?” Sae said. “I’ve had people come after me for cases before, and there have been a couple of moves that have really come in handy.”

“Have you seen the shape I’m in?” Ohya said, gesturing with her glass before popping one of the ice cubes into her mouth and crunching down on it with her teeth. Sae, who had spent years telling Makoto how bad that was for her dental health, winced. “You know the noises I make whenever I have to stand up, I don’t think kickboxing is really on the table for me.” She stretched out one of her arms, so that Sae could hear the cracking in her elbow and wrist, and shook her head. “No, thank you. On the other hand, if you wanted an excuse for me to watch you work out so you can show off for your very appreciative girlfriend, I’m into that.” She batted her eyelashes, and Sae felt the tension in her chest loosen into something sweeter and softer and leaned in to kiss her.

—

Ohya usually met Sae outside the gym, claiming to be allergic to the sight of that much physical exertion. _The only cardio I need is my heart racing when I’m chasing a lead_ , she’d said, or something equally cheesy, and Sae had laughed like she’d never heard a joke before. Then again, Ohya had treasured that sound like she’d never heard a woman’s laughter before, but in her defense, Sae had barely even smiled in those days, her quarter-life career crisis and the internal investigation and her own guilt over Kurusu’s imprisonment hanging heavy over her head. Each smile, each laugh, each time the tension in her face eased even slightly, was something to be cherished, a gift and a challenge, as Ohya quickly made it her mission to make Sae smile, even if it was only for the briefest instant, every time they encountered each other.

That difficult winter wasn’t the first time they’d met—Ohya had been a serious reporter before she wrote for tabloids, and she’d followed the meteoric rise of the young new female prosecutor with interest—but it was the first time they’d exchanged more than a few words, and definitely the first time Sae had looked at her with anything other than annoyance. To be fair, she’d been kind of a mess for a while, and was only starting to be slightly less of a mess, but it didn’t take an investigative journalist to tell that Sae wasn’t coping so well herself either. She might have been a prodigy with a law degree but she clearly didn’t know the definition of the word ‘rest,’ and everything about her was so sharp, so brittle, that Ohya thought she could shatter at any moment. She’d told Ohya, one night when they’d both had a few too many drinks at Crossroads after a particularly unfruitful day of searching for evidence, that she didn’t have time for friendship, let alone a relationship, that even though she hypothetically liked women she had always considered herself married to her education and now her job. Ohya had knocked back a few more shots over that, after Sae eventually went home, and ended up sobbing on Lala’s shoulder that the prettiest women were always the most repressed. Meanwhile she was losing herself in the story, in trying to get Kurusu freed, spending more time drunk than asleep on any given day, her apartment a mess of papers and string-covered cork boards that would give even the most avid conspiracy theorists a run for their money, but at least she was self-aware about how badly she was spiraling, and at least pining over her emotionally unavailable ally gave her something else to think about occasionally.

And then, somehow, neither of them broke. They started spending more time together, eating a meal when they met up to share information instead of passing each other flash drives with little to no conversation, hypocritically reminding each other to sleep when they texted each other in the middle of the night. Sae started talking about her sister more, about wanting to spend more time with her and also about taking more time for herself, and Ohya started counting her drinks and sleeping in her bed instead of at her desk. When the kid was finally released, she and Sae met up for lunch to celebrate, and then met up again the week after, because Sae had wanted Ohya’s opinion on which job offer to accept, and they kept making excuses so that there was always a next time until it became their regular arrangement. And then Sae had mentioned, wistfully, that there was a new film coming out that she wanted to see, but she didn’t think she could justify the time it would take, and Ohya asked if going out to dinner after would make it worth it.

The movie turned out to be awful, so bad that Ohya was almost tempted to switch to writing reviews just so she could tear it apart, but it was the funny kind of bad, and Sae laughed so hard there were tears in her eyes and had so many scathing opinions that the ensuing conversation carried them all the way through dessert. And when they said goodbye outside the restaurant, and hugged, Sae had kissed her lightly on the cheek and Ohya could’ve sworn she still felt the soft touch of her lips all the way home, and all she could think of was Sae kissing her again.

Watching Sae now, her sweaty hair tied back, her tank top revealing the toned muscles of her shoulders, kissing her again was still the only thing Ohya could think about. She’d scoffed at Sae’s offer of protection before—she didn’t need help, she was an adult, she’d dealt with dangerous situations before, if anyone came after her she’d always had enough adrenaline and stubbornness and witty comments to defuse or escape the situation—but she was beginning to reconsider. It honestly might be kind of nice, to have her girlfriend, who could scare a man away just by raising her perfectly-shaped eyebrows, tie someone in verbal knots with a few cutting sentences, and break someone’s ribs with a well-placed kick, even if she broke her own heel in the process.

Sae kissed her on the cheek when she finished her workout, but refused to hug her even though Ohya insisted that she didn’t care about sweat getting on her clothes.

“You looked good, babe,” she said. “Definitely good enough to kick the ass of anyone who tries to mess with us.”

“With any luck I won’t have to,” said Sae, with a smirk that made Ohya’s stomach flutter like she was a schoolgirl who had just barely figured out she liked women, “but if we’re making enemies, that’s a sign we’re making the right people nervous.” Ohya had made plenty of enemies, some of them because she exposed their hidden misdeeds, others because she’d printed things that probably should’ve gotten her sued for libel, but there was something about the kind of stories she went after these days, the kinds of people she took down a peg or two, that was worth any amount of danger. She wouldn’t dream of using any confidential information about Sae’s cases for her own reporting—there were lines she would never cross, at least not anymore, not when it came to Sae—but it sure helped to have someone on her side who was so intimately familiar with the law and shared her passion for uncovering the truth.

“You know I love it when you talk like that,” Ohya said, leaning up on her toes to kiss Sae properly, regardless of how sweaty she was, tasting the salt on her lips as Sae smiled against her mouth.

**Author's Note:**

> as a file clerk I hate the idea of Sae taking her files home with her but as a writer I know that she's a workaholic and I need to be true to the characters
> 
> title is from You and I by PVRIS
> 
> come say hi on [twitter](https://twitter.com/selkie_au_lover) where I alternate between crying about Akechi and yelling about f/f rarepairs


End file.
